Cosmetic Tattoos are currently available everywhere and are not regulated.​

Are you thinking about getting permanent eyebrows ? ​Say No to face measuring ! Keep on reading to find out why ​

3 days training is what most permanent makeup /microblading technicians have had. Some of that training is even offered online. Most of that training is done by people with very little experience who very recently received their own training. They all use very strange eyebrows measuring devices and techniques resulting in very unflattering and uneven eyebrows shape. ​ So who can you trust with your face? Over the last 12 months the demand for permanent makeup services had tripled, which unfortunately triggered an explosion in numbers of self appointed permanent makeup "experts " who after merely attending a 3 day microblading class, some offered only online, went back to their beauty shops and salons to practice their "craft" on unsuspecting victims. As a result, more and more people are now desperately seeking for permanent makeup removal and correction services. More clients than ever before are contacting me with photos of unevenly microbladed eyebrows, uneven and migrated eyeliners and uneven and blue lip liners. Please, please do your face a favour and do plenty of research before allowing anyone to touch your face! Verify all the facts before you sign up for something so permanent and practically not removable. Yes, it is not removable! Permanent and semi-permanent makeup is a tattoo , regardless of whether it was microbladed or implanted manually or with the tattoo gun, make no mistake, it is a tattoo and once it is implanted into your skin it is not completely nor easily, if at all, removable.

Regardless of what your technician, their salon or their website are telling you, do your own research. Do they have a tattoo licence ? Every facility in Illinois and in most other states where tattooing is being performed must have a tattoo license issued for that specific facility with their address written on that license . . Microblading is classified as tattoo, therefore, every facility where microblading is being done must have a tattoo and body art licence issued by Illinois Department of health and posted yearly on their wall issued for that facility with that facility's address. It can not be just any other license such as for example salon , beautician or aesthetician, doctor, nurse , clinic license.

Try to avoid going to any newly opened (under 3 years ) microblading "mass production" permanent makeup salons, since their main purpose is not to benefit their clients but to quickly get in on the microblading trend and to make as much money as possible. I predict that most of them will be out of business, as soon as their customers start getting permanent scars and permanently loose their real eyebrows hair from constant scratching and cutting of their skin .

Ok lets go back to our discussion on learning how to choose the best, the safest, most talented and experienced permanent makeup technician. Lets say you are trying to do online research and every permanent makeup website is telling you that they have many years of permanent makeup experience and this and that and bla blah blah... Well do they really? Its is very simple to check - Google their name, Google their technician's name . See what info you can find online and how far back does their record and the record of their permanent makeup work goes. Check out their facebook page to see how far back their permanent makeup pictures and posts go. Note that I did not say to check how far back their general beauty service posts and photos go on their facebook page. I specifically mentioned their permanent makeup work pictures? Are they telling you that they had been doing permanent makeup for many years, but they don't have any record of online presence beyond 2015? No permanent makeup facebook posts older than 2015? Big red flag ! Are all their google and yelp reviews, including yelp's not recommended reviews written within last 2 to 3 years, with nothing older than 2015 - an even bigger red flag. Make sure to look for the permanent makeup and not for the other salon services related reviews. Ask to see the photos of their clients' full faces taken centered and while they are not smiling with their eyes open, because this is the only way you can tell if someone's eyebrows are asymmetrical. Ask for to see the photos of their work after it is fully healed , since none of those microbladed eyebrows ever look the same after they heal. While the hair lines look nice and crispy immediately after the microblading , they never do heal that way. And last but not least during the initial consultation ask your technician to draw your eyebrows and see if they use any sort of measuring techniques or devices then run and don't look back because you will end up with the eyebrows that , instead of complimenting your face, it will make your eyes look too close, nose look too big or too long and already long face look even longer , narrow eyebrow bone look more narrow, deviated nose look even more deviated and asymmetrical and overall make the whole face look more asymmetrical than ever before . That is what traditional eyebrows measuring does- it underlines all the imperfections that people wish they could hide.

​THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR: ​

Red flag- many closeup side view eyebrow photos - Microblading warning- your eyebrows is part of your face and what you want to see is symmetry and enhancement of your facial features. Pay less attention to the magnified eyebrows photos taken immediately after the microblading procedure because in the end the only thing that matters is what they look like after they heal in 4 weeks , from at least few feet away. No one will ever examine your eyebrows one by one under the microscope, however everyone will see if your eyebrows do not make your face look better or younger or more symmetrical .

Say no to big and bushy caterpillar eyebrows - they make women's face look masculine , just like thin eyebrows make man's face look more feminine. Think of a drag queen female impersonators .... Why do their faces look feminine even without makeup?? It is because of their thin neatly shaped eyebrows. Remember Bruce Jenner and his very feminine eyebrows even before he went public.

Pigment, not ink is being used

Sterile (not reusable) needles and other equipment are being used

Large selection of good quality pigments made by reputable company with up to date expiration date.

Up to date tattoo licence (not the same thing as beautician, aesthetician or any other State issued licence)

Technician's verifiable experience of at least 5 years

Many authentic photos of technician's work healed

Look for photos of healed permanent makeup, not immediately after the procedure photos since permanent , unlike regular tattoo, does not heal or look the same as it does immediately after . Avoid businesses that mostly or only display photos taken immediately after, especially when it comes to microblading . For more information click on "FYI microblading vs soft tap" page.

Most of the technician's portfolio display frontal view well centered photos of after their work is healed, to provide evidence of good and even design.

​Office disinfection practice in between customer's appointments

Potential client's medical history is reviewed before scheduling client for consultation or for the procedure appointment .​

Other warning signs:

Done at the nail shop or hair salon out in the open with dust and hair flying in the air right into your open wound disregarding your safety! None of them are legal and would never be licensed by the Department of Health!

Absence of tattoo license issued by the Department of Health.

No allergy test is offered 1 week prior to tattoo procedure.

Your medical history information is not collected, no consent forms were signed, no home care instructions were given.

No one asked you if you ever get cold sores prior to scheduling you for a lip line or full lip procedure. BIG RED FLAG this one!

Technician offered to come to your or someone else's home (non-office settings.)

Out of town traveling technician (from different country or state) that is not there on the regular basis, using the same specific office that licensed by State's Department of Health.

An overbooked technician who is unable to take their time to listen to customer and who can't spend at least 1 hr or more on choosing/mixing the right color and shape, until the customer is completely satisfied with their choice without being rushed to start with tattoo procedure.

Technician that does not offer a wide variety of high-quality pigment colors.

Most colors being offered look too bright, and none of them look natural.

Technician that uses a stencil to make "one fit all" eyebrows without considering their client's facial shape and structure.

Always check and write down where and who makes pigments, along with expiration dates. Make sure that the pigment and not ink is being used. Ink is ok for body tattoo, but it is not acceptable for facial tattoo use.

Technician does not open sterilized needle in front of you. Technician who does not wash their hands before they put gloves on. Gloves are not changed after technician had to leave the room or touch something other than client or equipment used during the procedure.

Listed above are just few of many warning signs to be concerned about.Please feel free to call me if you have any questions related to selecting good permanent makeup artist at 847-877-6119

EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE!
Done 4 years ago at some nail shop in Gurnee IL shopping mall for $100, had uneven shape and turned blue 3 months later...Poor client had to live with it for 4 years, while she didn't know it can be corrected, but then she found my web site and decided to go ahead and try to correct it. Well.. we did it!!!!

EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE AND HAD BAD AND UNEVEN SHAPE

EYEBROWS THAT TURNED BLUE AND HAD BAD AND UNEVEN SHAPE

ANOTHER ACTUAL CLIENT WHO HAD HER EYEBROWS AND EYELINER DONE AT THE VERY WELL ADVERTISED PERMANENT MAKEUP PLACE LOCATED IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO . CLIENT HIRED ME TO REPAIR IT. IT TOOK US OVER 6 MONTHS AND MORE THAN $2000 TO CORRECT IT!

An ACTUAL CLIENT WHOSE EYELINER WAS DONE AT SOME BEAUTY SALON IN CHICAGO ...CLIENT CAME TO ME REQUESTING AN EYELINER CORRECTION. ..AS YOU CAN SEE IT WAS DONE COMPLETELY IMPROPER WITH AN INK THAT TURNED BLUE AND MIGRATED UNDER THE SKIN MAKING CLIENT'S OUTER EYE CORNERS LOOK LIKE THEY ARE BRUISED. ..JUST AN FYI, IN PERMANENT MAKEUP TECHNICIANS ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO USE BODY TATTOO INK. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO USE A SPECIAL PIGMENT THAT DESIGNED TO BE USED FOR FACIAL TATTOO DUE TO FACIAL SKIN BEING MUCH THINNER THAN THE SKIN ON THE REST OF THE BODY.

Eyebrows that were uneven , badly shaped done by using so called hair stroke technique that looked more like "hairstick technique ...

Many thanks to John Hashey for giving us permission to post his client's "before repair" photo for educational purposes. As you can see on this picture client had a lip liner done that perhaps originally it was meant to be a burgundy color that later on turned into a purplish black. You can also see that this person's lips were badly scarred.

Looks like this person's eyebrows were previously repaired with color that later turned very purple. Badly done and totally uneven eyeliner that goes deep inside the inner corners of the eyes-big no no!

Tattooed lips liner and lips. Looks like it migrated (spread) all over the place. Perhaps it was done with body tattoo ink instead of a pigment that should be used by all permanent makeup technicians. It also could be related to low quality tattoo machine or wrong needle length or improper technique when using a tattoo machine or use of tattoo machine that was not made for a permanent makeup application. The color turned purple blue due to wrong color selection. Selected color was too cool ...

The hair stroke technique went wrong. Here is the reason I don't believe in eyebrows done with hair stroke technique. It does not look like ran real hair unless person already has hair to cover the so-called hair stroke technique. It looks more like a hair sticks. In permanent makeup, because we use pigment instead of an ink, it is almost impossible to draw hair thin enough to look like a real hair. The lines are too thick, and the real hair do not grow like that. Well, it doesn't help that they turned entirely blue/purple perhaps due to technician's poor color selection or poor quality of their pigment or ink.

Previously repaired eyebrows. The color used to camouflage an old eyebrows was too cool, with too much Titanium Dioxide. My guess is that the camouflaged area is fading blue/green, or it could be that the camouflage color is fading starting to show old blue eyebrows.
The new eyebrows above the old eyebrows had been tattooed multiple times, perhaps by the different permanent makeup technicians. The worst thing one can do is to go around from one technician to another looking for a cheap way to correct their bad permanent makeup. The result looks almost like a rainbow of different colors that are now all fading at the different rate. Her tattooed eyeliner is not much better than her eyebrows. The eyeliner's color used to be reddish brown but over time it faded purple. I see a few different eyeliner colors on this photo.The first original color is most likely done with ink- reason it is migrating (spreading) all over this person's face. The second color application client had when she had a color boost, which was a thin line done with black pigment that now is almost gone